The Circle of Six: Emily's Quest (Legends of Eostra)

by Sanders, Dan

  Aldrick’s old angry scream rang at his enemy from across the ravine. He dived, his broad body swirling thorugh the air, using his TC to carry the large distance towards the Melder. Emily’s heart leapt at his heroism. He was saving her. Blade saw the old Professor sailing through the air. He looked around and saw the glint of the Adros Dagger in the torn grass. He dropped Emily, dived low to the ground, picked up the black blade and plunged it into the oncoming Professor’s round chest.

  Emily heard a cracking of bone. Aldrick froze mid-air and shimmered. His eyes went wide and mouth opened, trying to warn Emily.

  And Aldrick fell from the sky. Like a rubber doll dropped from a great height, his round stubbled face and curly black hair bounced once on the hard Annwynian ground.

  Emily and Sabina’s screams filled the cavern with longing and rage. In one bounce Emily sailed through the air to Aldrick and pushed him over using her long rabbit footpads, hoping he was still alive. Long black tendrils drifted out from the blade and filled his chest, as varicose veins of death seeped into his body. For a flash Sabina and Emily saw his belly turn rainbow colours like the colours of the portal, before his belly, chest and left arm turned to rough sandstone. His mouth was open in a scream, his eyes staring at nothing.

  Xavier and Blade laughed and made their way to Emily again. Lupi stood before Emily. Daimon shook his head as consciousness returned.

  With her emerald eyes flaring, Sabina spoke quietly and quickly into the air, her arms high, calling out strange words, her silver hair charged on end. Emily saw a torrent of water rushing through the trees. Sabina had summoned an angry wall of water from the Orena River.

  The air shimmered in front of Sabina as the wall of water stretched as high as a cavern. Higher and higher she pushed her waterfall until it blocked out the hot seething sun.

  In her rage Sabina threw the immense power of the watery cliff over the Melders. In a last minute defence, Xavier held his hands wide and cast a giant swirling ball of fire, vaporising the water as it gushed over them. The weight of the water knocked the drenched assassins onto their backs. Grey mist filled the cavern like a ghostlike room.

  No word was spoken, only the shuffle of scared and angry feet cracked the silence. Without her vision, Emily was caught off guard when both Melders, keepers of dark Elemental Lore, gripped her physically and mentally and dragged her to the portal. Unable to scream, she slammed her powerful hind legs into one of their unseen bodies. This broke their mental hold long enough for her to scream for help.

  “Help, the portal door.”

  Kato had finally dug her way free from her rubble prison. She and Noogie raced for the swirling portal. Kato’s mighty paw swept Xavier off his feet. But it was too late, Blade lifted Emily again to throw her through the round shimmering door between the Twin Worlds. She felt the swirling colours pull at her fur, closing in on her ears and whiskers, and thought it was all over, a bad dream coming to an end.

  Just then Noogie screamed a ferocious squawk, long and frenzied at the face of the Melder. He grabbed his face and dropped Emily. He gripped Noogie instead and threw her off his face and into the swirling portal before them.

  And in an instant Noogie was sucked into the other world, like water down a drain, unable to hear Emily’s stricken pleas. As she entered the shimmering prison Noogie grabbed the ring between her claws and threw it into Annwyn. It landed with a small thud next to Emily’s feet. Emily’s belly sank.

  She watched the blackness of space in the portal swirl and become a grassy Earth. They watched Noogie on the other side flapping her desperate wings, trying to get back in, banging into an invisible mirror. And in a flash of light Earth was gone and a lifelessstone door stood before them.

  Emily’s anguished howl rang across the valleys of Springton Forest, wrenching the hearts of the elements to which she was now attuned. She was consumed with anger. She jumped at Xavier, her anger matching his. He threw his hands up in defence, and his body burst into flames. In a mammoth hop taught to her by Rupurt, Emily sailed through the air and her head struck the flaming Xavier. Her ears burst into flames. She clutched her head. She could see the flames dancing on her but felt no pain. Strange, she thought, and kept thrashing her paws at him.

  Daimon screamed at Emily being consumed by fire. Sabina was weaving water to throw on the fire.

  But Emily shoved Xavier away and landed standing tall. Her ears were consumed by fire, as one with the elements. She willed the flames away. The pink centres of her white ears now glowed with swirls of orange and red, a blazing reminder of her emerging connection with the elements.

  Kato rose on hind legs and swatted the air in preparation for a deadly jump. Emily saw Blade’s look of worry at her transformation. Gripping the Adros Dagger, Blade jumped into the air, transformed into a black cloud and blew over to Xavier at the speed of a gale. His green arm stretched out from his cloud form and grabbed his wounded companion, vanishing in a gust of wind that screamed vengeance throughout the valley.

  Emily pressed her snout and paws against the lifeless stone door and cried. After some time Lupi gently led her away toward the leaf boat. Kato carried the lifeless Aldrick on her back, her bowed middle bobbing in silence to her swayed steps. Daimon walked on one side of Kato carrying Aldrick’s left hand while Sabina, crying inconsolably, carried the other.

  For a ling time Emily stood on the bank, holding the gash in her leg, and looked at the ashen faces of her friends. They were silently ready to give their lives for her, for the cause they believed in, for the one she now believed in. She was changed, not just her flaming ears and ocean eyes; she knew what she had to do; for Noogie, for Aldrick, and for the Twin Worlds.

  Chapter 28

  Goodbye Aldrick

  SPRINGTON FOREST,

  ANNWYN

  Emily ignored the rain dripping from her whiskers. She watched mourners fill the banks of the swollen Orena River. It had been two days since tragedy slashed the tight-knit group.

  A trail of royal carriages hovering just above the ground ferried the remaining dignitaries from the Ibendari festivities. She was surprised by how many students, past and present, had travelled from the far-flung campuses to this remote end of Springton Forest, to farewell the master of their Hawkmoth Academy. Their heads were low and their shoulders rounded. Aldrick was admired by many.

  She felt a familiar pull at her paw.

  “Emily,” Rupurt said. “Magas has arrived and he would like a word with you.”

  Emily looked to the sky to remind Noogie to stay close, only to remember she was no longer on her world. She sighed, fighting back tears. She wished she had frozen in the snow the day she fell through the cave.

  She looked at Rupurt without emotion and said, “I’m staying near Sabina.”

  They looked at Sabina in her crumpled robes, kneeling next to Aldrick’s crystal coffin.

  Emily spoke to the depressing wetness around them. “He was like a father to her.”

  Rupurt persisted, “Magas said it was important.”

  “He can wait. Where was he when this happened? He should have known this would happen. How many of us have to die to stop this madness?”

  Rupurt lowered his light-blue ears and nodded.

  Emily hopped over to Sabina and placed her paw around her shoulder. It was Sabina who first spoke.

  “You know the last thing he said to me? He loved my mother. It is impossible to fathom that man. Want to know the tragedy here? Mother loved him. It was my fault. He would be alive and they could be happy together, finally.”

  “Don’t say that, Sabina. You were not to know Torek’s Melders would be there. Nobody could.”

  Her damp emerald eyes were accusing. “But it would be different if I knew how much I could do with Water Lore before he died, rather than after.” Sabina spat the last words she would speak for the rest of the day. “My mother will not even be here to see him before he is rejoined.”

  Emily looked inside the clear crystal coffin to pay
her final respects to Aldrick. Aldrick’s face lacked the intensity he had while alive. His body looked out of place in the sky-blue satin sheets tucked around him. His thick arms lay by his side, his knuckles gently resting against the translucent crystal walls of his casket. In a final farewell she placed her paw on the walls and kissed the glassy surface with her nose. Pondering for a moment this man who had come in to her life only two lunations ago, she knew that despite his gruffness he was kind and loyal.

  A man with a pinched face, thick ribs, and tall sculptured hair like an upturned vase waved his fingers through the air and gathered the crowd together to commence proceedings. The others made their way to join Emily and Sabina at Aldrick’s casket. Kato’s huge presence and Lupi’s black bobbing hair turned many heads.

  The friends stood silent with their backs to the river. Emily wondered if Bevan would make it in time. She didn’t want to say anything to the others but she was angry the King had not released Bevan to travel with them. She was sure the result would have been different. But she had to admit that until the battle at the AGate, she had no idea that any two beings could overpower the Earth Lore magic of Aldrick and Kato. They are all so vulnerable, she thought, but she had to remain strong, for the others.

  Daimon whispered to Lupi, “Why can’t we wait until Sabina’s mother arrives?”

  “I agree,” she said. “And where is that scoundrel Bevan? If he was here...”

  The pinched-faced man, whom Emily now recognised as the King of Lothul, hushed the crowd. “We are gathered today to remember and farewell one of the greatest living contributors to the nurturing of young minds of the Lore of Annwyn. I will say a few words before I call forth people to recount some aspects of this man’s life, so we may remember him as he lived. But let me say this. Aldrick was born and raised in my kingdom of Lothul, the inland city from the southern ranges. We are an Earth Lore people. Aldrick’s intellect and talent was recognised at an early age, and from his humble beginnings he was sent to complete his formative schooling years at the Hawkmoth Academy in Errenor, the college to which he would later dedicate his life. Though an outsider to his new home, he dedicated himself to the Lore of the other elements, and became their star student. He loved the Lore so much that he declined to be an apprentice Melder of the Realm of Eostra. Yes, he was offered a Melder apprenticeship. He declined because he believed in the Lore and in educating the people. He believed the education of the Lore would eradicate ignorance and superstition. For that Annwyn owes him a debt of gratitude.”

  Rolling applause filled the valley, drowning out the impatient river. Students from various campuses and different phases of his life came forth and spoke for most of the morning. Occasionally the rain stopped long enough for the sun to illuminate the dark red trunks of the gargantuan Springton trees.

  Emily hopped away to find Magas. As she neared the edge of the clearing she nearly tripped over a tree root. She looked up and saw it was the foot of Chief Avani Branwan.

  “Forgive me, Eama; I should announce my presence more clearly.”

  “Oh, it’s you.” Emily smiled weakly, remembering what the Treebith had done to them.

  “Whom do you seek?” The Chief’s slow voice creaked through its leaves.

  “Magas.”

  The chief pointed a vine-twisted arm to the edge of the forest. She was surprised to see Magas holding his staff aloft, floating over the heads of the visitors. He landed next to Sabina’s sobbing form.

  An old man with a royal blue tunic and faded red hair was looking in her direction. His frail hand waved.

  “Who is that?” she asked the Treebith.

  “Professor Sashiel, his lifetime friend.”

  Emily waved her paw without smiling. “Why did you send us to Alendi? It was the most dreadful thing I have ever seen.”

  “You and your companions had not fully understood how the darkness will change our worlds. To lose the balance of harmony is not death, it is un-death, a much worse fate.”

  Emily wanted to argue, but was distracted by movement around Aldrick’s body. Magas pointed to the crystal chamber housing Aldrick’s lifeless form.

  “What happens now?” Emily asked the Treebith.

  “It is the Rejoining Ceremony.”

  “Rejoining?”

  “We came into this world from star-dust, and to star-dust we will return. Our being is rejoined with the elements, to return from whence we came. It is a reminder to us that we have a single life, that we are no better or no less than the elements from which we are made. This is the foundation principle of the Lore of the Elements.”

  Emily nodded.

  The Treebith creaked as it leaned into Emily. “I see you have begun the change.”

  “What do you mean?” Emily looked at her body, fearing she was changing into another being again.

  “As the symbol of rebirth of the Earth, it is expected your form will represent the four elements. See, your eyes are of Water,” the Treebith continued. “And your ears.” A vine hand reached down and tickled the inside Emily’s long leaf-shaped ears. “You cannot see it but it is burnt the orange of the Fire Lore. I see you have yet to achieve air, the most difficult to capture. When you absorb air, you will be ready to face your destiny.”

  With that, the Treebith rustled backwards and blended with the forest trees, unseen by any of the visiting beings.

  Emily shook her head, wondering what just happened. She felt nothing different about her ears. She would ask the others.

  She turned her attention to the King of Lothul who was ending his speech. “We will now sing the parting song to our friend.”

  Slowly, the group began to sing a song of the Earth Lore, a reminiscing tale of losing one back to the elements. Emily swayed to the entrancing melody. It was then she noticed that Lupi had hovered above Aldrick’s body to play her Pandrien Pipes. The other well-wishers were mesmerised by the gift from an Agramond. She smiled at Lupi’s use of her gift for good rather than gain. Suddenly a lilting voice rang over the others, angelic notes in perfect harmony with the pipes. All eyes were on Daimon. He had stepped up to the front, looking down at Sabina, with his fingers locked in front of his belly, singing with his heart full of mourning. Emily had never heard such a beautiful sound, and judging by the responses of the onlookers, neither had they. Emily’s heart sang, and tears ran down Sabina’s face. Sabina stood from her kneeling position and held Daimon’s hand. He looked into her eyes while he sang. His eyes were red.

  His chin was lifted high when the final note ended to applause that rang off the trees. Magas raised his staff to speak when suddenly a hum broke the silence. People looked skyward as the royal carriage of Ibendari hovered over the valley full of heads and landed at the edge of the crowd. All faces were agog as they had never seen a carriage flying higher than an arm’s-length above the ground.

  The crowd hushed, the door opened, and Prince Bevan stepped onto the grass and adjusted his royal-blue cape. He turned back to the carriage and held his hand out for the first of his two passengers to alight into the gentle Springton rain.

  A woman with faded amber hair drawn into a bun took the Prince’s outstretched hand. Her simple red skirt that hovered just above her boots gave her a gypsy quality. Fixing her wide belt and white blouse, she stepped down from the carriage. Her chin was high and her features fine.

  “Mother,’ yelled Sabina. She ran across the valley, pushing through the crowd and into her mother’s arms. They embraced, rocking in consolation.

  Prince Bevan didn’t wait for the second woman who wore an apron and covered her grey curls from the rain.

  Sabina wiped a tear from her eye and said, “Thank you.”

  Emily saw the Prince was uncomfortable. He nodded soberly. Sabina looked at him before smiling at her mother. Cera wiped the tears from her daughter’s face.

  Three courtiers from Errenor giggled and waved at the Prince of Ibendari.

  “Is that Ketty?” Emily said.

  “Yep,” Lu
pi said. “She travels everywhere with him.

  “He treats her poorly,’ Daimon said quietly.

  Magas drew everybody’s attention to Aldrick’s body and said, “We must begin the Rejoining.”

  The Melder pointed his staff at the clear crystal casket and willed it through the air until it floated on the water’s surface. The casket stayed fixed, hovering just above the surface of the raging river. Magas’ voice echoed into the forest as he said, “From whence he came, thence will he return.”

  Magas quietly spoke final words to his friend. The inside of the clear crystal case exploded into vibrant colours of yellow, blue and red, consuming the lifeless form. At first the body changed colour, his face sky-blue, his hair gold. Then Emily saw his body turning into dust, swirling inside his resting place, before billowing out of the top of the chamber, exploding in a cloud of coloured powder, spiralling into the air. The throng clapped when the coloured powder of Aldrick’s life transformed into a hundred white butterflies which bobbed past the onlookers and back into Springton Forest.

  Among tears and goodbyes, Aldrick’s friends and visitors dispersed. The rain had stopped and Emily and her friends stood at the huge base of a Springton Tree. Nobody spoke, wanting to preserve the magic of the ceremony. Bevan stood tall, uncomfortable in the silence. Magas finally joined them and spoke.

  “I thank you all for your contributions today. Aldrick Icelander was a great man. It was I who offered the Melder apprenticeship he rejected. Annwyn is greater for his sacrifice.

  “Given recent events, the King has released the Prince to join the Circle and their quest. We must now conclude who are the remaining two members of the Circle of Six.”

  “About time,” Lupi muttered under her breath.

  Magas paused to let her know his displeasure.